Top headlines: Budget leaves investors richer, RIL-Future deal hits hurdle

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will step down as the chief executive officer in the third quarter of 2021, the company said on Wednesday. Read top news with Business Standard

Delhi HC orders status quo on $3.4 bn Future Group-Reliance Retail deal

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked Future Retail Ltd (FRL) to maintain the status quo with respect to its $3.4 billion (about Rs 24,700 crore) deal with Reliance Retail. The court said it was satisfied that an immediate interim order was required to be passed to protect the rights of Amazon. Read more

Investors richer by Rs 10.5 trn after Budget; Sensex crosses 50K-mark again

The benchmark indices notched record closing highs on Tuesday as the buying frenzy triggered by the Budget continued for the second day. The Sensex even pierced the historic 50,000 mark in intra-day trade for the second time after January 21. The index rallied as much as 1,554 points before giving up some gains.

With these gains, the combined market capitalisation of all the listed companies on the exchanges jumped by Rs 4.14 trillion to Rs 196.60 trillion on Tuesday, taking the two-day increase to a whopping Rs 10.48 trillion. Read more

Govt will reserve up to 10% in LIC's IPO for policyholders: DIPAM Secretary

LIC policyholders, who have had a hand in creating this institution, will get an opportunity to own a part of the PSU, DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey told Nikunj Ohri. In an interview, Pandey said up to 10 per cent of the issue size of LIC’s IPO will be reserved for policyholders. Read edited excerpts here

Amazon's Jeff Bezos to step down as CEO in Q3, Andy Jassy to take over

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will step down as the chief executive officer in the third quarter of 2021, the company said on Wednesday, while announcing its financial results for fourth quarter.

Bezos, who founded the company 27 years ago, will hand over the position to Andy Jassy, currently the chief of Amazon Web Services. Bezos will become the executive chairman of the Amazon Board after the move. Read more

Govt likely to allow Covid-19 vaccine in private market by March end

With a low turnout for vaccination so far, the government is planning to open up vaccination to the private market by March or April, according to sources.

To boost the rate of vaccination, "the government is actively considering allowing vaccines to be available in the private market sooner than planned," said a source in the know. The person added that vaccines have a shelf life of six months, according to the approval granted by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) based on the stability data available so far. Read more

An impact analysis: Decoding the changes in rules and regulations in Budget

Encouraging start-ups Issue Start-ups have borne a huge brunt of the economic devastation caused by the pandemic. Further, despite the emphasis on innovation, a large number of start-ups tend to fail due to funding crunch, tax burden, rigid compliances, and technology related reasons, among others. Read more

Airtel, Jio pick different 5G routes, prepare for next big tech battle

The battle for 5G is suddenly hotting up. In an unexpected move last week, Bharti Airtel announced that it had become the first telco to demonstrate live non-standalone 5G service over its commercial network in Hyderabad, using existing spectrum in the 1,800 band. Read more

Auto margins could come under near-term pressure on higher duties

While most of the proposals for the auto sector in the Budget were positive, the increase in duties on certain auto parts to 15 per cent from 7.5 per cent to 10 per cent could lead to higher costs for auto makers.

Though these measures will encourage localisation in the long term, Saurabh Agarwal, Tax Partner, Automotive sector, EY India believes that there could be some pressures in the near term as auto part makers pass on the higher import duties. Read more 
 

Focus on capex does not make Budget inflationary: Expenditure Secretary

We expect the cost of the vaccination to be Rs 700 per person. This includes the price of two shots at Rs 200-250 each, says Somanathan. Read more